Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America (2013)

Vivek Bald‘s groundbreaking work about the socio-economic integration of Bengali and Muslim South Asian immigrants into Black communities in the U.S. is an unprecedently well-researched and delicately written history of Black and Brown solidarity in America. The book talks about the waves of male immigrants to New Jersey, New York, and Maryland (among other states) who created underground networks to gain employment and to bypass anti-Asian immigration laws. The stories talk about the families that these men started with Creole, Puerto Rican, and African American women, who were often their gateway to legalization in the U.S. It offers a particular window into these interactions in the New Orleans area.

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